Comic Book Sales Figures for November 2015

So we knew that the Dark Knight III: The Master Race were going to be popular, but we did not realize it would be one of the most popular books of the year and beat the rest of the comics for November this much. Star Wars Vader Down, the first Marvel Star Wars “crossover event.” was released, and we thought that would naturally take the top spot given the recent track record for Star Wars comics and the upcoming Force Awakens film. Part of the Dark Knight III’s success, beyond finally seeing Frank Miller back in action, is that it had so many different covers that collectors themselves drove up the numbers. Beyond this, the rest of the top comics are dominated by the closing issues of the Secret Wars event, such as Secret Wars 7 at 177,000, and the Marvel relaunch titles. Besides the Dark Knight III, the first DC title that comes in is Batman down to issue #13, far below it normally does. After that it is the first issue of the miniseries Batman: Europa at #17, which means that all of DC’s books in the top line-up are Batman related.

Because of all this activity at Marvel, Walking Dead is pushed down to #21(it usually lingers about #10) at just above 65,000. While the Star Wars titles are still massive industry leaders, they do seem to have lost a bit of their novelty as Chewbacca #4 is way down into the 30s. Previously, even unknown character’s had books hitting the top five.

The numbers on this list are up across the board, and we can expect they will be even higher next month. Paper Girls #2 still stands out as one of the best selling indie titles for the month, and the same is true of Brian K Vaughn’s We Stand on Guard and Saga. Fight Club 2 is still Dark Horse’s highest selling book at above 31,000, but it seems to be losing some of its initial fire because this is far lower than early issues. Archie #4 has also dropped to just above 25,000, partially from the loss of Fiona Staples, but this is still a respectable number and it looks like this is likely where the new Archie relaunch books are going to linger.

While DC has some great selling books, it is obvious when looking at this list that they are deep in second and have some catching up to do. Superman: American Alien is doing well with the first issue above 41,000, but that is still a touch low for a Superman book and it is way down the list on a month like this. Now that they announced Dark Knight IV, it is clear that DC is milking Frank Miller’s return because they literally have to. Many of the DC relaunch titles, such as Bizarro or Midnighter, are way down in the 160s at this point, which is usually reserved for Vertigo and Oni books.

Speaking of Vertigo, Twilight Children #2 comes in at a Vertigo standard of 12,000, which we are guessing is a bit of a disappointment for Vertigo staff. It is clear they want to compete more with the hot books at Image, but it may take them a little time to get back up to that relevance. Even the first issue of Gail Simone’s highly promoted Unfollow is only just above 10,000. This could still be the Marvel effect because of the huge number of Secret Wars and relaunch #1s, but it is still a bit surprising. What is also surprising is how much Vertigo dominated trades this month, with the The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition Hardcover taking in over 12,000 and beating out Star Wars.